1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to disk drives. More particularly, this invention relates to a disk drive having a compressible element or a spring for attaching a subassembly to a base of the drive.
2. Description of the Prior Art and Related Information
A huge market exists for hard disk drives for mass-market host computer systems such as servers, desktop computers, and laptop computers. To be competitive in this market, a hard disk drive must be relatively inexpensive, and must accordingly embody a design that is adapted for low-cost mass production. In addition, it must provide substantial capacity, rapid access to data, and reliable performance. Numerous manufacturers compete in this huge market and collectively conduct substantial research and development, at great annual cost, to design and develop innovative hard disk drives to meet increasingly demanding customer requirements.
Each of numerous contemporary mass-market hard disk drive models provides relatively large capacity, often in excess of 20 gigabytes per drive. Nevertheless, there exists substantial competitive pressure to develop mass-market hard disk drives that have even higher capacities and that provide rapid access. Another requirement to be competitive in this market is that the hard disk drive must conform to a selected standard exterior size and shape often referred to as a “form factor.” Generally, capacity is desirably increased without increasing the form factor or the form factor is reduced without decreasing capacity.
Satisfying these competing constraints of low-cost, small size, high capacity, and rapid access requires innovation in each of numerous components and methods of assembly including methods of attachment of certain subassemblies to a disk drive base (“base”). Typically, the main assemblies of a hard disk drive are a head disk assembly and a printed circuit board assembly.
The head disk assembly includes an enclosure including a base and a cover, at least one disk having at least one recording surface, a spindle motor for causing each disk to rotate, and an actuator arrangement which may be either rotary or linear. In a typical rotary actuator arrangement, a head stack assembly is used to read or write data from or to the disk. The head stack assembly includes a flex circuit assembly including a flex circuit cable and a flex bracket for attaching a distal end of the flex circuit cable to the base. The printed circuit board assembly includes circuitry for processing signals and controlling operations.
In head disk assemblies, threaded screws are typically used for most fastening applications such as fastening a flex bracket and a latch, such as a magnetic latch, to the base. However, such screws use valuable manufacturing time during assembly of the head disk assemblies and have the potential to increase contamination within the interior of the head disk assemblies by generating particulates.